Opinions – The River Above

Sending us on our approach into a brand new yr with extra vitality than appears strictly cheap, DRUPARIA have jaw-dropping potential. “The River Above” is one other album that might simply get missed amid the chaos of Christmas, nevertheless it deserves rather more. Creators and expert peddlers of a technically devastating and sometimes ferocious pressure of melodic demise metallic, the Ohio quintet make numerous courageous and daring selections on their debut.

The very first thing that almost all will discover about DRUPARIA is how tight and brutal they’re. “Unvoiced Remorse” looks like a press release of intent, with spine-jolting precision and explosive particular person performances that mesh collectively right into a single, centered bolt of sound. A notch or two sooner than the vast majority of like-minded melo-death bands, they actually tear the place aside.

“The River Above” appears to attract from a large unfold of influences, and never all the time the obvious melo-death pioneers. There’s a robust European vibe all through, however even the obvious nods to AT THE GATES are tempered by fearsome undercurrents of American metalcore, and bands like HIMSA and DEAD TO FALL, circa 20 years in the past. The sum of these elements is subtly distinctive and married to some really nice songs. “Unvoiced Remorse” and “Below The Shade Of Sand” lay down the template: basic metallic pushed to a breathless excessive, however pushed by a really trendy depth. “Below The Shade Of Sand” dips into the iciness of blackened melo-death, rips alongside like THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER in a rush, and hits house with a relentless stream of pristine hooks and chic athletics from drummer Noah Van Dyke; “Bereavement” is a lung-exploding dash with an infectious melodic chorus, blistering lead breaks and the proper quantity of turbocharged MAIDEN worship. Progressive touches are deftly executed, too. A beautiful mid-song interlude has the fragile depths of early OPETH, and a number of other different songs take related detours into extra ornate and eccentric realms.

However at its coronary heart, “The River Above” is all about exhilaration and supreme focus. DRUPARIA are such a deadly, locked-in unit, with so many tips up their sleeves, that the entire enterprise feels vastly extra mature and meticulous than we’d anticipate from a debut. Songs just like the grandiose and melancholy “Kintsugi”, and the triumphant, whiplash-inducing title observe, are tightly structured and delivered with wide-eyed, evangelical zeal. Tangential leaps just like the snow-blasted melodrama of “When Cranes Return” make excellent dynamic sense and level to higher compositional depths that DRUPARIA are destined to discover sooner or later. Most significantly, when they’re flying alongside at full pelt, as on the shapeshifting, heads-down assault of “Bled For Consolation”, they kick up an insane quantity of elite-level, melo-death mud. A brand new drive awakens. Thrilling.